The Four Principles
## GA 265
### The Four Principles
“Learn to be silent...”
Instruction lesson Berlin, June 26, 1906[^1]
In Freemasonry, meetings are divided into those in which work is carried out with the full performance of the ritual, and those that deal with instruction, which underlies the entire structure of Freemasonry and teaches about things that every occultist should write deep into their soul as the center of the occult being.
Most of the time, people have completely false mental images about how to penetrate (enter) the occult world. There is indeed extensive literature about it, but nothing has ever been revealed (published) about the really deep occult things; you won't find any of that in it. The most important things have never been published. Therefore, dissatisfaction will usually arise after reading such books.
The actual intimacies have been presented as signs. They are only of value to those who know how to bring them to life from within. Most people make poor use of their apprenticeship in occultism because they believe that one can penetrate the occult world through external magic.
There are times when it is especially dangerous to enter the occult world through external magic. This was the case in the Atlantean period, in the fourth sub-race, the Ur-Turanians. This is where actual black magic developed. That is why the priests had to keep part of the wisdom secret. The other epoch is our present time. We are the fifth sub-race in the Aryan [post-Atlantic] epoch. Today, all external means are more likely to bring people down. Therefore, it is necessary that today a number of people become familiar with the intimate paths that lead to the spiritual world.
If a person is to become aware of the right means to enter the spiritual world, he must first know the obstacles. He must know four principles in order to avoid the obstacles and enter the spiritual world.
The first principle is:
What you have spoken with your words, over that you have lost power in your deepest soul.
Therefore, the best way to lose power is to talk a lot. That is why in the Brotherhoods in the past there was no talk at all of occult powers. Those who talk about it a lot lose some of the power they seek. Hence the power of silence. When man prattles, he must think twice.
The brotherhoods have today surrendered the part of the power that lies in the teachings of Theosophy. Why can certain things be communicated today? Before 1879 this would not have been possible; but at that time something was decided that made it possible.[^2] Before 1879, it would have meant that the occult brotherhoods would have fallen apart altogether, if nothing else had happened. They did fall apart for the part that was communicated. They must have something in the background that they are not yet communicating, something new and higher.
Form a mental image of the reservoir of strength you are accumulating through the things you keep to yourself. That is why, when you do communicate, it must be a kind of resignation, a sacrifice; because however much a person communicates, he is sawing off the branch on which he is sitting. The mood must be far, far removed from any fanaticism or need to communicate. As long as you have this need, it means a weakening of your reservoir of strength. Anyone who acts as a propagandist agitator misses the whole goal that he sets for himself.
We Masons discuss the theosophical movement quite objectively. It is the first to have appeared in an agitative form. When someone has assimilated the teaching, the concept of the teaching, in such a way that it is not merely firmly seated within him, but seethes in his soul, it awakens his strength. Anyone who does not feel shaken to the core by a book like H.P.B.'s “Secret Doctrine” or my “Theosophy” in such a way that it has the effect of fire must read it again and again and again until he has it completely within him, even if he reads it a hundred times or more.
This is how it is with the theosophical teachings, which – although they are so necessary because without them culture could not continue, because culture needs them – are therefore also so dangerous when they are publicly proclaimed in meetings and so on, because maturity and immaturity sit together there. But this danger must be there; you cannot advance civilization without it claiming victims. But we must exercise caution, not put demons into people's ears and not dampen every sentence so that it does not become a fiery force.
Occultists exist today and have always existed in the world. If someone wanted to come to them earlier, it was always as if by chance. But of course there is no such thing as coincidence. But people also traveled for weeks to see and question one of them. That was a completely different relationship than today, when the occult teachers go to the people or travel to them.
It was part of his power to know: What you express with words, you have lost power. It is about making talking about these things a sacrificial service; but then the power grows. Nothing is better for the occultist than getting used to keeping silent a lot. Chatting at tea-time and in the evening, voluptuously indulging in talking, causes demons to commit fornication on the astral plane. A clairvoyant can see this, and from a high point of view this is much worse than committing fornication here on the physical plane. Language has become a means of destroying human progress. If you consider what is read merely for the purpose of satisfying oneself - these countless products of modern poets and poetesses (poetians) - you can see what destructive forces are in the world. Today, the greatest progress would be achieved by reading and printing less.
The second principle is that you kill the will through the power you have. Suppose someone comes forward today with a significant intention. He comes from a lonely corner of the world, has no connection to anyone, and tries to accomplish a deed in a foreign arena. He has no power at all, but his will is the most powerful. In a sphere of power, the original will is paralyzed because it is quickly dulled (even before). From an occult point of view, the one who has the most power in the outer world has the most paralysis in his inner will. That is why an occultist prefers to go around with a three-knot rope rather than be a king. No one who has attained powerlessness would exchange with someone who has a great empire to command. For if he were to do anything other than what is beneficial for that empire, he would be doing nonsense. He who has a great fortune must administer it; he is restricted in regard to his will. Whatever power he has damages his will.
A fine example of what can be achieved in this way is provided by the Englishman Oliphant.[^3] He was a very, very rich man and threw away everything he owned; gave it to charitable foundations, etc. and moved to America poor, where he earned his bread with the labor of his hands. When he had saved up a little, he and his wife moved to Mount Carmel and built themselves a hut. There he began dictating to his wife, and she wrote down the most wonderful things that one can read –[^4] the spiritual power that flowed to him from the spiritual world. Then his wife died. Now he tried to write by himself. But he could only do so by retiring to the hut he had shared with his wife.
Here a strange spiritual act was produced, which occurred as a result of the surrender of worldly power. One loses will through external power, and the less power one has, the more will one gain.
The third principle is: the more one wills, the more one loses of inner life. The will kills the life. As much as one wills, so much inner life dies away, so that everything we want is at the same time an obstacle to our inner life, to our spiritual development. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the attitude of limiting oneself in one's will to what the world demands of us; not to will out of inner urge. In occult life, one advances when one's volition is limited to the most necessary things. You will have more of nothing than when you consciously suppress the volition, for no other reason than because you can suppress the volition. But we must learn not to shirk our duties when we suppress a volition.
The fourth principle is that the inner life, through feeling and sensing, kills the thought. - If you easily feel great pain and great joy, the more you develop this inner life, the more you kill the purity of thought. Those who want to think objectively must properly exclude the inner life. Every outflow of the inner life kills the purity of thought.
If you want to have thoughts in the purely spiritual, you must kill the inner life. If you want to have life, you must kill the will. If you want to have the power of will, you must kill power.
He who wants to have power must kill speech. In order to have clairvoyant thoughts, we must, like a blessed God, hover above pleasure and pain. To regulate the will, we must discard power, and to regulate power accordingly, we must learn to be silent.
The first occult training for the Freemason is to consult with himself privately on how to fulfill the four sentences:
First: Learn to be silent in order to be powerful.
Second: Learn to want by renouncing power.
Third: Learn to feel by relinquishing your will.
Fourth: Learn to think by relinquishing your feelings.
You have to reflect on these sentences and on the possibilities in your own life for realizing these things.
These sentences are part of the understanding of the pentagram:
The five points correspond occultly to certain things, so that they signify what a person will become, either by observing these principles or through development. This pentagram will be as much of a key to the occult world as it is used.
No one needs to think about the figure if they develop in the sense of the four sentences. When a person has grasped what is in the four sentences, then it becomes a hieroglyph and means as much as a (real) key to the spiritual world.
Once you have begun to learn silence, a second hieroglyph that you begin to understand is the hexagram.
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[^1]: Dr. Rudolf Steiner has been constantly traveling since the beginning of January, this could have been the first instruction lesson. It is not known whether the ritual also took place at that time. The insertions in parentheses are variants from the various text templates.
[^2]: In three different text templates, it says “1879”; in another, “1875”. The correct date is probably 1879, because although 1875 is the year the Theosophical Society was founded, it is more likely that 1875 refers to the event in the spiritual world: the fall of the spirits of darkness in 1879. See “The Spiritual Background of the External World. The Overthrow of the Spirits of Darkness,
[^3]: Laurence Oliphant, 1829-1888. English diplomat, writer, journalist. Biography by Margaret Oliphant: W. Oliphant “Memoir of the life of Laurence Oliphants, London 1891.
[^4]: The two works “Sympneumata” (1885) and “Scientific Religion” (1888) were published. See also lecture London, August 24, 1924, in GA 240.
Cite:
GA 265/the_four_principles/p019-p022 · edition English